GERMANY - A network of right-wing extremists inside the German military has drawn up a list of targets including several politicians, MPs were told. The armed forces have discharged almost 200 soldiers over the past decade for holding far-right beliefs. Prosecutors believe, however, that at least one extremist network with ambitions to build a “state within a state” has infiltrated the military.
The German attorney-general has opened an investigation into a group known as Preppers, which is believed to include active servicemen, reservists and members of the security services. Officials told a parliamentary intelligence committee this week that the Preppers had compiled a list of political opponents they intended to “hold to account”.
The existence of far-right networks, described as a “shadow army”, in the armed forces is a sensitive subject in Germany, where extremist cells have a long history of fomenting dissent and revolution. The Bundeswehr’s 180,000 personnel are drawn disproportionately from young and poorly educated men from former East German states. The military says that it is monitoring the situation closely and the number of isolated incidents of extremism has fallen substantially since the abolition of national service in 2011.